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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

In this well written and directed excellent movie, Najwa Najjar avoids to a certain extent the temptation to get involved in the typical political debate between Israel and its foes as the drama centers around a man (starring the famous Egyptian actor Khaled Abu Naga), whose one life target after spending long years in prison becomes nothing other than finding his missing daughter. As the story does not forget to include a sweet and innocent touch of romance, this excellent piece of art which depicts the day by day life under the longest military occupation in modern history, also tackles many issues that Palestinians face as they try to move on with their lives under military occupation, be it the shortage of water supplies that the Israelis control, the need for jobs, or the existence of collaborators among them as well as underground resistance fighters, let alone a fact that many westerners seem to miss, that the Palestinian people are Moslems and Christians !!. Anyone who watches "Eyes of a Thief", will not only learn a thing or two about life in the occupied Palestinian territories, but will definitely find himself enjoying a very good movie.

I went to see this film with low expectations and I was very pleasantly surprised. The casting of the main male character was excellent. He was a man of few words but his emotional state was easily understood. The children in the films were brilliant. The story kept me on my toes and I was surprised few times by its twist. The combination of Israeli soldiers harassments and the water theft are themes that were well picked as few of the ways Israel controls lives of Palestinians. The love story was not well developed but that is also symbolic of how Palestinian society has been stunted due to many decades of oppressive occupation. Editing, casting and dialogue were well executed. Overall I strongly recommend this film as a thriller and as a window to a reality that is unknown to many.

Sad to say, Eyes of a Thief is not a very accomplished film. The performances are uneven, with the worst the male lead who doesn't act so much as pose prettily. The plot is shallow and predictable. There is no layering of significance, nothing beyond the basic melodrama. We know immediately that the spirited Malak is the hero's long lost daughter, that he will win her foster mother and that the older man who wants to marry her will be exposed as a villain. Villainy, of course, is collaboration with the Israelis in their theft of the Palestinians' water.The latter argument is, of course, a well-disproven calumny, not that that matters in the Palestinians' propaganda campaign against Israel's very existence. Along with: "All we want to do is plant our potatoes."But the film's most serious lie is the total omission of any references to Islam or its aberrant terrorist extreme. Instead the hero is a Christian, indeed the heroic sniper who offed 11 Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in 2002. There are two problems here. One is why the villain thinks that information would demonize the Christian marksman among the Palestinians. The guy would be a hero. Two, Israel is the only guarantor of Christian freedom and life in the whole Middle East. Everywhere else Muslims are slaughtering Christians and conversions to Christianity and attacking their churches. As a historic film is as much about the time it's made as the time it's set (see Aristotle's distinction between mere History and the more meaningful Fiction), this misrepresentation of the religious dynamic invalidates the film entirely. In comparison with Israel's Gett, the Mauritanian Timbuktu and the Iranian Today (see my separate blogs) Eyes of a Thief is simply third-rate. It does the Palestinians no good in perpetuating their present painful impasse.

I'm sure it's going to be a great film as Najwa Najjar is the director i think she is from Nablus we saw her previous film "pomegranates and myrrh" and for this film she's working with "Abo El Nijja" hes a great actor I'm sure it's going to be a great film Wish to see it in Amman cinemas or Cairo cinemas. As the Palestinians film deserve more than the got i mean a lot of films won Oscar, can , academy and much more awards as they are such a great films but on the Arab TV , channels or cinemas we can't see them. I think you should work more for the support from Arabic channels Best of luck Najwa, and best of luck to all Palestinian directors and actors.